Marine Seat Assembly with Floor Slide Release and Footrest Adjustment

ABSTRACT

A seat assembly includes a seat and a pedestal connected to the seat. A height adjustment mechanism is positioned between the seat and the pedestal for selectively changing height of the seat relative to the pedestal. A footrest is mounted on the pedestal for sliding vertical movement thereon and for pivotal movement between a stored position and a foot-supporting use position. A floor slide is adapted to be connected to a support surface and configured to slidably and pivotally receive the pedestal so as to enable selective fore and aft movement and swivel movement of the seat relative to the floor slide.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application relates to and claims priority from U.S. ProvisionalPatent Application Ser. No. 61/294,999 filed Jan. 14, 2010, which isfully incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to a vehicle seat structureand, more particularly, pertains to a seat assembly designed for marineapplication.

BACKGROUND

Marine seats, such as pilot chairs, are known to variously includeheight adjustments, seat back or backrest tilt settings, swivelpositioning, pivotable and height adjustable footrests and fore and aftmovement of the seat relative to support structure such as a pedestal orfloor slide mounted to a support surface of a boat, a ship or similarmarine vessel.

It remains desirable to provide a marine seat assembly which includes aquick release adjustment of the seat relative to the floor slide thatcan be adjusted by a user while seated. In addition, it remainsdesirable to provide a marine seat assembly which includes a heightadjustment of a foldable footrest that is more easily adjusted for theuser of the seat. Further, it is desirable to provide the seat with aswivel adjustment relative to the floor slide.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates to a seat assembly adapted to be used ina marine application. The marine seat assembly includes a seat having abackrest pivotably mounted relative thereto, and a floor slide adaptedto be fixed to a support surface of a marine vessel. A support pedestalis mounted for fore and aft as well as swivel movement on the floorslide, and is provided with a footrest pivotally connected thereto formovement between a stored position and a foot-supporting use position. Aheight adjustment mechanism is interposed between the seat and thepedestal for establishing a desired vertical height adjustment of theseat relative to the support pedestal. The seat assembly includes atongue and slot arrangement between the footrest and the supportpedestal for providing selective vertical adjustment of the footrestrelative to the support pedestal. The seat assembly further includes aquick release lever, cable and spring-biased pin arrangement accessibleto a seat occupant while sitting in the seat to selectively permit orprevent fore and aft movement of the seat relative to the floor slide.

The seat assembly includes control arrangements for controlling arecliner adjustment of the backrest, for controlling back and forthmovement of the seat relative to the height adjustment mechanism whichis secured to the pedestal, for providing lumbar adjustment of the seat,and for providing locking and unlocking of a swivel and fore and aftadjustment of the seat relative to the floor slide. The pedestalincludes an upper portion adjustably mounted relative to a lower portionby means of a E-shaped slot arrangement formed in the upper portion. Thefootrest includes a slide bracket slidably mounted along the pedestal, amounting bracket pivotally mounted on the slide bracket and anadjustment bracket pivotally mounted to the slide bracket. The pedestalis attached to a carriage structure slidably mounted to the floor slide.The carriage structure has adjustable roller bearings for establishing aproper rolling engagement between the carriage structure and the floorslide.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The best mode of carrying out the invention is described herein belowwith reference to the following drawing figures:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a marine seat assembly in accordancewith the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the marine seat assembly of FIG. 1 withthe seat, backrest and floor slide removed;

FIG. 5 is a top view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a front view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 8 is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 4;

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the floor slide employed in the marineseat assembly of FIG. 1;

FIG. 10 is a top view of FIG. 9;

FIG. 11 is a front view of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is an end view of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a fragmentary enlarged detailed view of a spring-biased pinmechanism used in the floor slide of FIG. 9; and,

FIG. 14 is an exploded perspective view of FIG. 9 including a coverarrangement.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED INVENTION

Referring now to the drawings, FIGS. 1-3 illustrate a marine seatassembly 10 in accordance with the present disclosure. In the embodimentshown, the marine seat assembly 10 is typically adapted to be mounted toa horizontal support surface of a motorized marine vessel such as a boator ship.

The marine seat assembly 10 is basically comprised of a seat 12, abackrest 14 having a pair of movable arm rests 16, a seat post orpedestal 18 having a movable footrest 20, a height adjustment mechanism22, and an adjustment track or floor slide 24 which is normally securedto the horizontal support surface of the marine vessel.

The marine seat assembly 10 generally includes a backrest lever 26 forenabling recliner adjustment of backrest 14 and a fore and aft control28 for permitting back and forth movement of seat 12 relative to theheight adjustment mechanism 22. The seat assembly 10 further generallyincludes a lumbar adjuster 30 (FIG. 2) and a lever 32 (FIG. 2)conveniently accessible from seat 12 for controlling the heightadjusting mechanism 22. The seat assembly 10 also generally includes ahandle 34 for effecting locking and unlocking of a swivel adjustment forthe seat 12 relative to the floor slide 24.

Referring now to FIGS. 4-8, the seat 12 together with backrest 14 isselectively adjusted in vertical increments by the single actuator,spring-assisted scissors-type height adjustment mechanism 22 mounted onan upper portion 36 of the pedestal 18 using suitable fasteners 37(FIGS. 6 and 7). The structure and operation of the height adjustingmechanism 22 is fully disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,506,932, thedisclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference.

The upper portion 36 of pedestal 18 has a forwardly and downwardlyprojecting front end 38 and rearwardly extending side plates 40 whichare formed with a pair of E-shaped slots 42. The front end 38 is formedwith a pair of slide channels 44 and a front plate 46 configured with aseries of spaced apart slots 48 that define a number of adjustmentpositions for the footrest 20. The channels 44 slidably receive a set ofslide blocks 50 mounted on protruding rod ends 51 (FIG. 8) of a slidebracket 52 that slides up and down in front end 38. Footrest 20 has amounting bracket 54 that is pivotally mounted to slide bracket 52 and ispermitted to move between a folded up, substantially vertical storageposition adjacent the front end 38, and a folded down foot-supportinguse position (shown in the drawings in solid lines) by means of aspring-biased pull pin 56 provided on the slide bracket 52. The pull pin56 is engageable and disengageable with a hole 53 in mounting bracket54.

The footrest 20 also includes an adjustment bracket 58 associated withthe slide bracket 52 and the mounting bracket 54. The adjustment bracket58 is pivotally mounted to the lower rod ends 51 of slide bracket 52.The adjustment bracket 58 has an actuator bar 60 and a pair of tongues,one of which is seen at 62 (FIG. 8). Tongues 62 are biased intoengagement with slots 48 and are selectively engageable and disengageblewith slots 48 in front plate 46 upon manual movement of actuator bar 60to incrementally adjust the vertical height position of the footrest 20relative to the pedestal 18.

The pedestal 18 has a lower portion 64 with a front plate 66 and sideplates 68 which are attached to side plates 40 of upper portion 36 viathe E-shaped slots 42 using suitable fasteners 70 (FIGS. 6 and 7). Itshould be understood that the height of upper pedestal portion 36relative to lower pedestal portion 64 may be varied by positioning theE-shaped slots 42 accordingly relative to the lower portion 64 beforesecuring the fasteners 70. The lower pedestal portion 64 also includes athrust washer 72 and a swivel plate weldment 74 upon which the washer 72swivels or pivots. As best seen in FIGS. 1-3, the swivel plate weldment74 is attached by suitable fasteners 76 to a carriage structure 78 whichis releasably moved back and forth along floor slide 24. The seat 12mounted on pedestal 18 may be selectively swiveled relative to floorslide 24 by actuating handle 34 that controls selective locking andunlocking of swivel or pivoting movement of washer 72 relative toweldment 74.

Referring now to FIGS. 9-14, the carriage structure 78 includes a pairof side plates 90 welded upon a bottom plate 92 and forming a slidecarriage. The side plates 90 have upper ends 91 formed with apertures 93for facilitating attachment of swivel plate weldment 74 thereto.

As best see in FIG. 14, the bottom plate 92 has downwardly extendingside portions 94 provided with laterally extending cylindricalprotrusions 96 upon which a plurality of washers 98 and slide blocks 100are mounted. The design also includes an adjustment for laterallyadjusting slide blocks 100 (opposite lock pin 130) to reduce clearancebetween carriage 78 and floor slide 24. A first fixed mounting plate 102(FIG. 13) extends outwardly from each side plate 90 and serves as abearing surface for a set of adjustment screws 104 threaded into jamnuts 106 and holders 108 on toggle arms 110 that are pivotally attachedby fasteners 112 passed through washers 113 to the side plates 90. Outerends of the toggle arms 110 have laterally extending cylindricalprotrusions 114 for rotatably mounting stainless steel roller bearingsor other suitable roller element bearings 116 and washers 118 held inplace by retaining pins 120. As will be better understood hereafter,adjustment of the screws 104 will cause the arms 110 to pivot aboutfasteners 112 so as to adjust the position of the roller elementbearings 116 relative to bearing surfaces of the floor slide 24.

Turning to FIGS. 13 and 14, one of the side plates 90 is provided with acable hook or support bracket 122 held in place by fasteners 124 and isalso provided with a second fixed mounted plate 126 spaced beneath thecable support bracket 122. A coil spring 128 is retained between themounting plates 102 and 126, and serves as a biasing device for a lockpin 130. That is, the coil spring 128 is designed to receive the lockpin 130 using a retainer 132 such that the bottom of the lock pin 130 isnormally biased beneath the mounting plate 102 and into engagement withone of a series of holes 134 formed in longitudinally extending sliderails 136 of the floor slide 24. The slide rails 136 have external upperbearing surfaces which are engaged by rollers 116, and internal bearingsurfaces which are engaged by the slide blocks 100. An upper end of lockpin 130 is attached by a clevis pin 138 to a retainer 140 at a bottomend of a flexible cable 142. The cable 142 extends upwardly through thecable support bracket 122 and, as seen in FIGS. 1-3, wraps around thepedestal 18 with an upper end connected to a release handle 144pivotally mounted relative to the height adjustment mechanism 22 as bestseen in FIG. 2. Pivotal movement of the handle 144 causes cable 142 topull lock pin 130 upwardly against the bias of spring 128 so as todisengage lock pin 130 from selected slide frame hole 134 enabling thecarriage structure 78 to slide along the rails 136 of floor slide 24.FIG. 14 shows that the floor slide 24 includes a flat insert 146disposed between the slide rails 136, and a pair of slide end brackets148 attached by fasteners 150 to insert 146 and fasteners 152 to sliderails 136. Cover arrangement 154, as shown in FIGS. 1-3 and 14, can thenbe secured between weldment 74 and carriage structure 78 to protect andshield the screws 104, arms 110, rollers 116 and spring-biased lock pin130.

The disclosure contemplates that the floor slide 24 may be a single unitor a number of units interconnected in series to increase travel of theseat 12 and pedestal 18 relative thereto.

The present disclosure thus provides a tongue and slot arrangement 62,48 for vertically adjusting the position of the footrest 20 along with apull pin device 56 for enabling movement of the footrest 20 betweenfolded up and folded down positions relative to pedestal 18. Inaddition, the present disclosure provides for a quick release lever,cable and lock pin arrangement 144, 142, 130 that conveniently enables aseat occupant to selectively engage or disengage the marine seatassembly for fore and aft movement relative to an elongated floor slide24 while in a seated position. Such arrangement is particularlydesirable when a marine seat is mounted in a confined environment withinthe marine vessel.

Various alternatives are contemplated as being within the scope of thefollowing claims pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matterregarded as the invention.

1. A seat assembly comprising: a seat; a pedestal connected to the seat;a height adjustment mechanism positioned between the seat and thepedestal for selectively changing height of the seat relative to thepedestal; a footrest mounted on the pedestal; and a floor slide adaptedto be connected to a support surface and configured to slidably receivethe pedestal so as to enable selective fore and aft movement of the seatrelative to the floor slide.
 2. The seat assembly of claim 1, wherein abackrest is pivotally mounted to the seat.
 3. The seat assembly of claim1, wherein the seat is mounted for back and forth movement relative tothe height adjustment mechanism which is secured to the pedestal.
 4. Theseat assembly of claim 1, wherein the height adjustment mechanism is aspring-assisted, scissors-type construction.
 5. The seat assembly ofclaim 1, wherein the pedestal has an upper portion adjustably mounted toa lower portion connected to the floor slide.
 6. The seat assembly ofclaim 1, wherein the footrest is vertically adjustable relative to thepedestal.
 7. The seat assembly of claim 1, wherein the foot rest ispivotally mounted to the pedestal for movement between a storageposition and a foot-supporting, use position.
 8. The seat assembly ofclaim 1, wherein the pedestal is mounted for selective swivelingmovement relative to the floor slide.
 9. The seat assembly of claim 1,wherein the pedestal includes a carriage structure which is slidablymounted for back and forth movement along the floor slide.
 10. A seatassembly adapted to be used in a marine application comprising: a seathaving a backrest pivotally mounted thereto; a pedestal connected to theseat; a height adjustment mechanism positioned between the seat and thepedestal for selectively changing height of the seat relative to thepedestal; a footrest mounted on the pedestal for sliding verticalmovement thereon and for pivotal movement between a stored position anda foot-supporting use position; and a floor slide adapted to beconnected to a support surface and configured to slidably and pivotallyreceive the pedestal so as to enable selective fore and aft movement andswivel movement of the seat relative to the floor slide.
 11. The seatassembly of claim 10, including a control arrangement for controlling arecliner adjustment of the backrest.
 12. The seat assembly of claim 10,including a control arrangement for controlling back and forth movementof the seat relative to the height adjustment mechanism which is securedto the pedestal.
 13. The seat assembly of claim 10, including a controlarrangement for providing lumbar adjustment of the seat.
 14. The seatassembly of claim 10, including a control arrangement for providinglocking and unlocking of a swivel and fore and aft adjustment of theseat relative to the floor slide.
 15. The seat assembly of claim 10,wherein the pedestal includes an upper portion adjustably mountedrelative to a lower portion by means of an E-shaped slot arrangementformed in the upper portion.
 16. The seat assembly of claim 10, whereina tongue and slot arrangement is provided between the pedestal and thefoot rest for vertically adjusting the footrest on the pedestal.
 17. Theseat assembly of claim 10, wherein the footrest includes a slide bracketslidably mounted along the pedestal, a mounting bracket pivotallymounted on the slide bracket, and an adjustment bracket pivotallymounted to the slide bracket.
 18. The seat assembly of claim 10,including a quick release lever, cable and lock pin arrangement enablinga seat occupant to selectively engage and disengage the seat and thepedestal for back and forth movement relative to the floor slide. 19.The seat assembly of claim 10, wherein the pedestal includes a carriagestructure slidably mounted to the floor slide, the carriage structurehaving adjustable roller bearings for establishing a proper rollingengagement between the carriage structure and the floor slide.
 20. Theseat assembly of claim 10, wherein the pedestal includes a thrust washermounted for swivel movement on a swivel plate weldment.